


Gamer's High

by ari_es



Series: A3 Shorts [1]
Category: A3! (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Gaming, Gen, MMORPGs, hints of Itaru/OC Director
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-04-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:00:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23791207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ari_es/pseuds/ari_es
Summary: Welcome back to Taruchi's midnight streams! Tonight's stream features special guest Tachibana Isuzu (unwilling), with an appearance by Citron (uninvited). The genre will be MMORPGs, and the enemy will be all lobby scum who can't tell the difference between unmarked ground and AOE markings. Noobs do not enter.
Series: A3 Shorts [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1756318
Kudos: 12





	Gamer's High

**Author's Note:**

> This work features an original Director, with a different personality and background as the Tachibana Izumi in-game. I gave her a different name since she's a different kind of character, but I'm not an expert on Japanese names and kind of picked one that sounded good, so apologies for any incongruities beforehand!
> 
> Quick director profile  
> \- Name: Tachibana Isuzu  
> \- Age: 24 years old  
> \- Used to be a professional actress since a young age, but currently on a prolonged hiatus because she grew tired of the industry and lifestyle. Trying to find a reason and motivation to act again.  
> \- During this lull she wanted to find out more about her father's disappearance, and received the letter from Matsukawa  
> \- Cheerful and friendly, good at getting to know and getting along with people  
> \- Also has a dorky side that makes it easier to connect with the quirkier members of the troupe
> 
> Quick note that I don't know the complete story of A3 (read the main story until middle of Act 8, but only a handful of event stories), so I might be missing some things. But this story is meant to be a standalone, and won't include spoilers either (as far as I know...). The gaming elements were inspired by my experiences with FFXIV.

Isuzu normally wouldn't come here at night, or over the weekend, because she knew a certain 23-year would be totally unreachable. That is, he would be occupied mind and soul to his computer screen or smartphone. But she really had to confirm some things with him—the line changes Tsuzuru had mentioned before; Itaru's rehearsing schedule with his business trip coming up. And with the way he'd been disappearing into his room faster than ever before she'd been unable to catch him at another time, and deadlines were looming.

She sighed and lifted her hand to knock loudly on the door. If he had his headset on and the sound turned up high—which she knew he always did—she'd likely have to almost pound the door down for him to hear her. By some stroke of luck she only had to do this for two minutes before he came to the door. She concluded that he must have just ended a game round.

"Oh, director, what's up?" He was in his usual gaming gear, complete with the little hairdo.

"I wanted to confirm the things we talked about this morning," she said, "the line change and your rehearsal schedule."

"Sure," he said, more easily than Isuzu anticipated. "Actually you came at a great time; after we deal with that stuff, you can help me with my game."

Isuzu lifted her eyebrows. "You want _me_ to help you with your game?"

"Yeah," he said nonchalantly, "Banri's out tonight and I've had shit luck with randos all night. I'd rather fill at least one spot with someone I know."

"I'm not that good at games you know," Isuzu said.

"But you've played with your little brother before right? You can't be much worse than the lobby scum."

Isuzu laughed. "Fine. But I need your undivided attention for the next ten minutes."

"Done," the office worker said with a grin.

* * *

Ten minutes later and Isuzu was putting on Itaru's spare gaming headset, and logging onto the second laptop he kept for grinding on multiple accounts. While they had gamed together casually before, with Citron and some of the other troupe members in tow—even dragging in non-gamers like Tenma and Muku—she had never done it in the same room before. Somehow it felt more serious like this and Isuzu found herself gulping.

“Are you nervous or something?” Itaru asked with a hint of surprise and amusement in his eyes.

“Well it just feels like we’re on the same team or something when we’re gaming in the same room like this,” Isuzu said. She’d watched a few pro-gamer matches with her brother before, and while she’d never be comfortable with the lifestyle herself, had to admit it was kind of cool to see a line of uniformed teenagers all putting on their headsets and going at their mice and keyboards at the same time.

Itaru chuckled. “We are on the same team, both in game and out.”

That somehow made Isuzu feel more relaxed, and she found herself smiling again. “Heh, you’re right. But actually, in real life I’d be your party lead and captain.”

“Ay, ay, captain,” Itaru parroted, putting on his own headset. "Oh, I'm streaming by the way. So if you don't want your voice on the stream don't use the mic."

"You're streaming?" Isuzu asked, a little surprised. She flicked the headset microphone up away from her mouth.

"Yeah, started doing it more regularly now," he said, "no cam though and voice changer so it's harder to tell it's me. Not that anyone at my company plays any games."

"Huh..." Isuzu mused. Just like Itaru to draw a clear line between his work and personal life.

"It's an RPG tonight," Itaru said, "got any experience with those?"

"A bit," she said, "I used to party with my brother too."

"What class did you play?"

"Tank," she said, "he said they were always needed and you couldn't always trust people to do it right, so he taught me how to do it properly for him instead."

Itaru made a low noise as if impressed. "I would've pegged you more as an assassin or mage.”

"Why?" Isuzu asked, curious.

"Sneaky, smart, deadly," he said, giving Isuzu a mischievous smile.

Isuzu snorted lightly, "is that how I come across to you? Actually if I had to choose myself I probably wouldn't have picked tank either."

"What would you have picked?" Itaru asked. They had both logged in now, Itaru lending Isuzu his alt account.

"Guess," Isuzu winked.

Itaru chuckled. "That’s exactly what I mean. Anyway you can pick whatever you want to play tonight. You can even make a new char if you want; I can grind you to the proper level in no time."

"Nah," Isuzu didn't doubt he could, but it would take far longer than just picking one of his high level characters, and she didn't plan on being here all night. "What do you need for your party?"

"Tank or healer would be good," Itaru said, "I play DPS."

Of course he did, Isuzu thought with an internal eye roll.

"I'll go with tank then," Isuzu said.

"You're doing us all a great service," Itaru said with his eyes closed in a solemn expression. "Do you know how to tank in this game though?"

"Give me a few tips then Itaru-sensei."

"I much prefer Itaru-senpai."

“Maybe next time junior.”

“Tsk, you always use that one year seniority on me…”

* * *

After running through a few mobs with Itaru giving Isuzu tips, they were ready to queue up for a dungeon. Turned out there was an event dungeon out, and although Itaru had already played through it a few dozen times, he still needed to grind more for items. While Itaru chatted with his stream Isuzu listened with not a little interest. "Taruchi" was personable like the Itaru at work, but he also had a quick mouth and didn't mind going off when things went awry. It was like the best of both parts of him, and he seemed to be at ease and in his element.

"Oh, we got a queue."

Isuzu felt like that was more for her than anything else, so she turned her attention back to the screen.

"Heyo," Itaru typed into the chat as greeting. There was no voice chat in dungeons for this game, which probably suited Itaru just fine.

A stream of "hello"s came in the chat, and then-

"Hello there my friends! It is a pleasure to fight with you in battle!"

Isuzu chuckled. “That sounds like something Citron would say.”

“You know, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was him,” Itaru remarked. He added a quick note to his stream that he was playing with a friend, to explain why he sometimes talked without prompting, but they weren’t comfortable being on stream. Cue several questions about who it was, especially if it wasn’t NEO. “Bet he plays this game too.”

A second later, the mystery resolved itself.

"Oh,” the party member continued, “is that you Taruchi? I can see you!"

"What do you know," Itaru chuckled, "I think it is Citron."

"What does he mean he can see you?" Isuzu suddenly whipped around to look outside the windows, but thankfully no Citron was hiding in the bushes. But then again, it wouldn’t make sense for him to be gaming and outside at the same time.

"He must be watching the stream." Itaru said. Into the chat he typed: "don't peek, that's cheating."

"You're right!" came Citron's reply; his typing, as usual, was full of typos—Isuzu had long developed the ability to rearrange the letters into their proper forms, kind of like those “only the top 5 percent can read this message” spam ads—except for those particular “battle” and “combat” related terms, which he wrote with impeccable accuracy. "I will shut my eyes immediately!"

"You can't play the game that way though," Isuzu typed with a laugh.

"Oh you are right too!" Citron exclaimed, "wait, is this a friend too? I think you sound like someone I know."

“Oh? Maybe I am.”

"Hmm it is not NEO because he is out tonight. Ah I know, I think it is the director, because I saw her go somewhere and have not seen her come back!"

"We’re going Citron," Isuzu chirped, not wanting to hold up the party anymore; thankfully a few players had been watching the cutscene. “Do your best.”

"Yes my director!" Citron hollered, "let us commence battle!"

Citron was playing as a mage, which Isuzu thought was just like him and suited him just right, though she wouldn’t have been surprised if _he_ had a few assassin classes on his account; he certainly fit Itaru’s description of her earlier, in many different ways. The rest of the party comprised of a healer and another DPS, making up a basic party. Isuzu was a little nervous to be tanking for the party, especially since it was her first time running this dungeon. But with Itaru's tips, and Citron's gibberish in the chat as he tried to type out advice between mobs, Isuzu got comfortable after a while; it wasn’t so different somehow from their rehearsals, except she was taking more advice rather than giving them out.

Soon enough they came upon the first mini-boss.

"Director, you'll want to watch out for its second attack!" Citron warned good-naturedly. "It attacks tanks especially, and immobilizes them in the path of the next AOE. You must block it properly to neutralize its effects!"

In the back of Isuzu’s mind she thought if Tsuzuru could see the way Citron was speaking now, he’d probably shed a tear. Maybe they should do a game related play next…

"I was just telling her the same thing," Itaru typed into the chat, "I can lead her well, don't worry."

"Oh sorry!" Citron exclaimed, "but I also want to support the director," Citron said without backing down, "so I will fight you for this Taruchi!"

"Bring it on," Itaru said.

"You can’t fight while you’re on the same team,” Isuzu placated.

"I will teleport Taruchi into the line of an AOE!" Citron said cheerfully.

"Ha!" Itaru chuckled, "don't forget I'm an assassin class. I'll be fine."

"Then we will PVP later, one on one!"

"With pleasure."

"You're both surprisingly compatible as gaming buddies," Isuzu said aloud.

"Citron gets it," was all Itaru said.

They were once again rather inconveniently holding up the party—Isuzu was thankful the other members thought their banter was funny and not a total waste of time; some even seemed to be watching Taruchi’s stream—so they pressed ahead with the fight. The first round of attacks went surprisingly well, and Isuzu almost let down her guard. But perhaps inevitably when the immobilizing attack came around the second time Isuzu was caught in it. She took a massive hit to her HP, messed up her subsequent rotations, and got herself and the healer caught in the mini-boss's crossfire. She died, and so did the healer an attack later, and the party then wiped.

"Sorry!!" Isuzu apologized profusely to the party, "it's my first time in this dungeon!"

"You are doing a poor job supporting the director Taruchi!" Citron exclaimed, "I should PVP you right here!"

"Can't do that in the dungeon," Itaru said nonchalantly, "and sorry, it's bound to happen since she's new. It's not like I'm playing it for her."

"Let's go again!" Isuzu said, not wanting to back down. "I'll get it this time."

"If it doesn't work out I'll tank," their archer DPS said, "if it's your first time you shouldn't be tanking."

"She can do it," Itaru said rather resolutely back, "just watch."

Isuzu’s heart couldn’t help but jump a little at the way Itaru so confidently defended her. She kept her eyes trained on the laptop in case her face was red. Then, gripping the mouse more tightly, she sat up straighter in her chair and let out a deep breath. She was rather used to high-stress situations with alot of expectation on her shoulders; she had been in numerous types of filming before after all, and worked with all kinds of directors, including those with rather short fuses and crass mouths. So all she did was slow her breath and focus down her attention. Itaru would later tell her—and brag to the others—that that was the moment she entered her "gamer mode".

The party engaged the mini-boss again. After successfully getting through the first round of attacks, and having her fingers now sufficiently warmed up to the combo keys and the boss’s pattern of attack, Isuzu found it easier to weave around the battlefield. She was even starting to have a little fun, though her attention was still focused, and the stress of a wipe was still on the back of her mind. The adrenaline was really something else, like the highs she used to feel during an intense scene she was filming. She wondered if Itaru ever felt the same, or if he ever used that high to help with his stage acting. Maybe Isuzu too, could train herself to enjoy acting again by gaming-

“Watch ou-”

“GYAHHHHH!"

They sat in stunned silence for a few seconds, somewhat disturbed only because they had to keep going in the dungeon. Isuzu could feel her face reddening and heating like a slow oven. Even if her mic, which was still on, hadn’t picked up that screech, Itaru’s own mic must have. Which meant she must have gotten onto his stream in all her adrenaline-fueled glory. Itaru, meanwhile, was trying his best not to burst into a raucous fit of giggles, while his stream flipped out over the mystery voice and how their ears were bleeding from the sudden noise.

“Director. I think I heard that too,” came Citron’s in-game chat.

“LIES!” Isuzu said out loud.

“I bet even Sakyo-san heard you,” Itaru chortled.

“Oh god,” Isuzu paled,” he’s gonna come for us.”

“Don’t worry,” Itaru said, suddenly sobering, “I have Kamekichi watching the door for just these kinds of situations; he’ll warn us if anything happens.”

“That was so embarrassing…” finally realizing the situation, Isuzu couldn’t help but say; curling up in her chair while still somehow managing to play the game. She was functioning basically on autopilot now, and on her apparently inborn gaming skills helping her avoid the worst of attacks and press buttons.

“You should mute your mic you know,” Itaru said with not a little amusement on his face.

“I give up!” Isuzu hollered, “hello Taruchi’s stream!”

Itaru’s stream veritably exploded with messages, most of them exclaiming that Itaru’s “friend” was a female. For Itaru’s own sake and well-being, he reached over and quietly muted Isuzu’s mic from the laptop.

“I appreciate the enthusiasm—and welcome to the hallowed halls of gaming—but let me do some damage control,” Itaru said with his most charming customer-service smile, with a touch of his genuine gentleness, “trust me when I say it’ll be much easier if you don’t show up on stream too much.”

“Oh,” Isuzu said, heart rate picking up a little; she’d never admit it to him, but she was secretly a sucker for his “on” mode—though only because she knew the real him. “Thanks.”

They cruised along the rest of the dungeon, and even through the second mini-boss without any big mishaps. Isuzu’s fingers had sufficiently warmed up now, and might even be said to be on fire; while she was nowhere near a master, she had—as Itaru and even Citron chimed—the real makings of a true gamer. After Isuzu’s outburst, Citron also seemed to be reaching the heights of his excitability and adrenaline, typing rapid-fire questions into the chat about what he had apparently heard, and how it was in their gaming room right now. Isuzu was sure he’d burst into Itaru’s room—Kamekichi be damned—and play together with them, if he could easily bring his computer over mid-game right now.

Finally they were on the threshold of the final boss. Itaru had them start on the easiest level of the event dungeon, so even the final boss shouldn’t be a big deal. Isuzu still felt a little nervous though, knowing bosses usually had far more mechanics involved, not to mention the longer health bar. The rest of the party had by now warmed up to Isuzu as a tank and acknowledged her skills, even the archer DPS who had complained a little earlier. They were all giving her tips on the mechanics in chat while Itaru rapid-fire explained it to her verbally. Isuzu absorbed it as well as she could, like reading a script for the first time or receiving scene instructions from a director, and when she felt ready, she gave everyone the OK.

They moved into the boss’s zone and triggered the fight to start. Isuzu aggroed the boss—a giant thing with massive claws and two big horns—and positioned it away from the other players, near the edge of the arena where the others had suggested she start with. They made their way through the first round of attacks and AOE, suffering only a minor amount of damage. Isuzu could feel their teamwork coming together, and was really starting to get into the rhythm of this game. It was much like watching the four troupes working through their troubles, coming together, and blooming on stage. This here was their final stage, where they could show all that they had learned and mastered, and use it to overcome the visible and invisible foes that existed in all their hearts.

Isuzu led the boss to the side edge of the arena, where they were to commence the latter half of the fight. She knew she could count on Itaru and Citron and the other party members to engage the adds and set up the mechanics. All she had to do was her own job and to keep the boss away from everyone else. She was so focused on her combos and aggro that she forgot a small mechanic that existed between two big attacks, and because she had brought the boss too close to the edge so she couldn’t see the AOE markings clearly. She took a direct hit, and was slowed so much that even as she started to run out of the way of the next AOE, she knew she’d never make it.

 _Oh no_ , she thought, the party couldn’t wipe now when they were so close to the end, and all because of her!

Suddenly she saw her character sliding across the screen without her control, out of the danger zone of the AOE. Citron had used one of his precious teleport skills, which Itaru had said was on a 2 part charge and an otherwise ungodly cooldown, to save her skin. She didn’t have any time to thank him or think about anything else, having to quickly aggro the boss again and bring it back to its original spot, slightly more away from the edge this time.

The fight continued past the midpoint of the second half and Isuzu had to admit it was intense. If the easiest level of the event dungeon was already like this, she shuddered to imagine how bad the harder levels would be. But no doubt Itaru and Banri would breeze through it like a walk in the park, and be able to do it repeatedly for hours on end too. She sincerely hoped she wouldn’t somehow be dragged into it.

“I’m going to trigger my limit breaker skill,” Itaru told Isuzu; he was still calm in the face of all this carnage, though there was a hint of that intensity and adrenaline in his voice, the kind he got when he was immersed in his acting too. “Can you move the boss a little more to the centre?

“Okay,” Isuzu nodded.

“Hang on, this guy’s out of position-”

The healer, who had before now been impeccable in their gameplay, suddenly paused and was slow to move in time for the next mechanic. They also stepped on a clearly marked ground trigger that suddenly lined up an attack by the boss straight towards them.

“Damn!” Itaru, who was halfway to the safepoint, suddenly darted back the other way, and right in front of the healer.

The boss swung its massive claw, homed right onto the healer—and Itaru who was in the way of its attack—cleaving through Itaru’s entire HP pool, already depleted because the healer had been healing Isuzu earlier, and had clearly suffered some kind of lag spike causing them to be slow in their actions. Itaru’s character fell to his knees, then flat onto his chest. The healer, who survived with a sliver of their HP, pulled themselves to safety to the archer DPS’ position, and quickly healed themselves back up. That guaranteed attack wouldn’t have been lethal if all of the party members had stacked up to take it, but since no one expected anyone to trigger the ground markings, no one could move fast enough to share the damage except Itaru.

“Ah shit,” Itaru took off his headset and ruffled his hair in frustration. “And I wanted to finish the fight off with a limit breaker.”

As he said this, Citron’s character began to glow with an otherworldly light, rising off the arena platform and partially into the air. As he weaved his staff in an arc, massive comets rained down from the crackling sky and directly onto the boss. The boss roared, swathed in a sea of flames, then fell onto the ground, sending the platform atremble for the last time.

“Whoa-” Isuzu couldn’t help but exclaim, “cool!”

“The assassin’s breaker is cooler…” Itaru mumbled, but he wasn’t sure Isuzu even heard.

“Sorry sorry!” came the healer’s belated apology now that the fight was over. “My wife plugged in the second toaster and it jumped the electricity for a second there. I’ll give you my commendation and extra bonuses Taruchi-san. Love your stream by the way!”

“Thanks…” Itaru mumble-typed into the chat.

As the other party members said their thanks and bid their farewells, Citron and Isuzu crowded around Itaru. Since the fight was nearing the end the healer didn’t raise Itaru, and he seemed too lazy now to press the button to resurrect himself. He was reading off his stream, where some new gifts and subscriptions had come in, maybe even from their party members just now.

“Hehe,” Citron had come dangerously close to Itaru’s character, so much so that his foot was practically on Itaru’s face. “I have won Taruchi! I am the triumphant one standing!”

“ _You_ didn’t take me out,” Itaru said airily, “the boss did.”

“I saved the director once too! And scored cool points by defeating the big boss with style!”

“Tsk,” Itaru seemed genuinely miffed, “I would’ve rather sacrificed myself for the director if I had to die at all.”

While this exchange was happening—which Isuzu missed the most of—she was looking for the emote for kneeling. Finally finding it, she made her character kneel beside Itaru’s prone body.

“We say a final word to our fallen warrior Itaru Chigasaki,” she began, “He was a true hero, sacrificing himself for a comrade; living honorably to the end! We will never forget him as we march forward, and carry his valiant spirit with us onto the bloody battlefield.”

Citron had taken the same pose as Isuzu, and finished off with a prayer emote. Then he stood up and said, “come on director, let us run off into the sunset together!”

“Sorry Citron-kun,” Isuzu laughed, “I’m already in a party with Itaru.”

“Oh boo! It must be so boring with him! It would be much more fun with me-”

“Alright, we’re going now Citron, bye bye.”

In a few quick clicks Itaru resurrected himself and exited the dungeon, causing Isuzu to exit as well since they were in the same party.

He sat in a kind of grumpy silence, sorting through his inventory while his phone buzzed with notifications, no doubt from Citron.

Finally out of the dungeon, Isuzu leaned back into her seat and let out a long breath. The whole thing had taken no more than forty minutes, probably much longer than it needed to be since she was new, but it had felt like much longer.

She suddenly found herself laughing a little.

“What?” Itaru looked over curiously, “the way I wiped wasn’t _that_ funny.”

“No, it’s just...this is kind of fun.”

Itaru smiled, like a gerbera blooming. “I really would have rathered sacrifice myself for you, you know.”

“Huh?”

“Nothing,” Itaru turned back to his screen, the glow of the monitor lighting the faint flush on his face. “You want to join me and Banri for our gaming nights then?”

“No thanks,” Isuzu rejected at the speed of lightning. “I value my life.”

“Tsk,” Itaru tutted, “and you have so much potential too.”

Isuzu stretched in her chair. “So we’re done right?”

“What? No way; that was just one run. We have to do it 24 more times.”

“Say what?!”


End file.
